Hatchling
by Sarapercival333
Summary: The hatchling has grown into an eagle.


Hatchling

"Vikram," Cora said. He turned around and looked at her.

"Cora," he said just as impassively. He turned to look at her with his amber eyes. It never failed to take her breath away.

"What do you want?" he snapped rather harshly and she was brought back down to reality.

"I want a trade," she said, a little more straightforward than usual.

"What kind of trade?" he sat down on his swiveling chair and looked at her straight in the eyes.

"As usual," she said as impassively as possible. Vikram was irritated, he didn't like vague answers but, when did Cora give him straight answers anyway.

"As usual?" he inquired. Cora's eyebrows seemed to fuse together.

"Are you that dull?" asked Cora sharply.

"No, I'm not," he answered sarcastically, "if you would just stop wasting my time."

Cora smirked.

"I'll trade you in for the files I have over the Tomas," she stated calmly. "In turn I would like you to give me the financial records you have on the Ekats."

"The Ekats have been bothering you lately," he stated flatly.

"News gets fast," she said.

"Secretive huh?" Vikram stated the obvious. "The little hatchling had grown into an eagle."

"And little brave heart there has grown to be selfish," Cora sniped. Vikram's eyes flashed with a fury.

"Don't speak about things you can't comprehend," he said angrily, his voice barely above a whisper. Cora bit back a hoot of sarcastic laughter.

"What can't I comprehend?"

-x-

_Twenty years ago_

Vikram looked at her with angry eyes.

"Didn't I tell you to never speak to me again?" asked Vikram rather cruelly.

"Please," Cora said, "I want to ask you why and I'll be gone never to be seen from you again."

Vikram stopped scribbling something on his notepad and looked at her.

"I don't need ingénues like you anymore," Vikram snapped, "I'm rising to become the next Branch Leader, and clearly, people like you who keep convincing me to look the other way, if you know what I mean, pull me back from my duties."

"I thought you liked my advice," Cora murmured slightly.

"Jesus, Cora, how thick is your noggin?" he suddenly snapped. "I was pretending, my parents thought you had momentum and potential to become the next Janus leader, turns out they were wrong so I decided to drop you."

"So o-our friendship," she stammered, "i-it wasn't real?"

"To put it simply, yes," Vikram said his face a mask of indifference.

She rose up from her seat and walked out the door. The woman inside of him wanted to break down and cry in front of him and beg for their friendship to come back.

But the Janus inside of her, however small it was, had influence on her now, and it told her to walk out those doors and prove him wrong.

And damn right was she about to.

-x-

"As far as I could tell," Cora retorted, "you were the one who left."

"I left because you didn't have momentum," Vikram said, putting on his reading glasses and scanning over a document.

"And suppose it was my fault that you didn't have enough patience for me to gain that momentum?" Cora asked, vexed.

"Yes, you could've done it sooner," Vikram stated, "why didn't you do it earlier."

Vikram felt his head snap to the left and sense of burning on his right cheek.

"Bastard," Cora said through gritted teeth, "how thick one man get?"

Vikram stood up and caressed her cheek. She flinched from the sudden contact.

"I would really hate to see that face broken," Vikram said, a smile etching his handsome features.

"I'd like to see you to it," Cora bit out defiantly. Most people would've cowered at Vikram's threats but Cora wasn't one of those people. She would rather fight it to the end if there's nothing to lose.

-x-

_Twenty years ago_

Cora's heels echoed throughout the hallway, her blazer billowing behind her. Her hands were clenched into fists. A guard greeted her on the way out and showed her to a pair of glass doors. Students bustled around and about on the front. The grass seemed to glitter against the harsh sunlight. She looked at the plaque carved next to the doors. It read: 'Cavanaugh British School'.

Cora blew an indignant puff of air. Just like Vikram to place the Lucian Stronghold inside a private school he owns. She approached one of the students and put on a bright smile.

"Hello, who is the principal of this school?" she asks just like any normal parent.

"Oh, um," the girl collects herself for a moment and looks at her. "His name is Rabik Kravam."

"Is he Indian or something?" Cora inquires.

"Supposedly," the girl says. "He looks of it, maybe half-Indian, half-British? His features looked British."

"Thank you," Cora gratifies and walks away.

_Rabik Kravam, huh? This might be useful in the future when I prove the damn bastard wrong._

-x-

Vikram looked at her with impassive eyes, scanning her up and down. He still remembers the last time they had seen each other clearly. She had changed a lot since then. Her face mirrored his impassive ones, but the way she clutched the envelope she was holding in her hand, it was a dead giveaway at what she was feeling. He knew it was an unconscious reflex, she probably didn't know it. Her chocolate-colored orbs looked distant. She was obviously thinking about something else.

"Cora," he started. She turns towards him, her face unreadable.

-x-

_Twenty years ago_

Cora worked hard as an agent and used her abilities to its extent, intending to prove the little twat that called her an ingénue wrong. She wasn't naïve. She wasn't dumb. And she was most capable of amassing the power that he is currently amassing. And she will make sure, the next time they meet, it will be when she has already achieved her triumph.

"Cora," Hartley, a blonde-haired man with a thinning hairline and fading blue eyes called out to her. He was undoubtedly in his mid-forties and if not for his extensive use of anti-hair-loss products, he would've been half-bald by now. She knew of the products as she had snuck into his office once, using his card, and had rummaged through his drawers. And that was what she had found aside from the files she had needed. "We need you on an operation."

She stood up from her seat and followed him towards his office.

"This is a high-profile case, Cora," Hartley said to younger agent, "I don't want you to mess this up."

He handed her a folder and she sifted through it. Apparently, she was to infiltrate a Lucian base and steal some important files that proved crucial to the Janus.

"You start tomorrow," Hartley said. She scanned the documents further. Apparently, the Stronghold was just nearby. She can obviously get there by car.

She had returned days later, only not with the Stronghold burning and several high-ranking agents with it, but with an excessive amount of supposedly lost Janus files.

Her superiors had looked at her with pride and she had been hoisted from being an ordinary agent to being a special agent, at that point, she already had her own team.

It was a small team comprised of newbies. But they would work. One was an Afro-American like her, his name was Broderick Wizard and amongst the team, he was the most gifted. They were around the same age. Another was a red-haired woman. Her name was Lola. She had a pointed nose and always kept her hair in a ponytail. She was extremely good in combat as she had worked for the US Military before. The next one was a man who had curly brown hair. His name was Roland. Amongst them all, if she had to admit that he was the least experienced.

Overall, they made a good team.

-x-

Vikram looked at the woman before him. His diamond ring and her platinum band glinted harshly against their eyes, marking them bound to other people.

And looking at those, he felt a sense of remorse. He felt a crawling feeling of nausea clawing up his throat, something that told him that he made a wrong move. And Vikram Kabra usually made his works perfect and devoid of any flaws.

Cora's cold face was facing the other way. She then turned around and shoved him the file he wanted and said, "Let's get this drama over with."

-x-

_Twelve years ago_

Cora exited the church with a feigned grin. Her husband was trailing closely behind her. Her team cheered excitedly for her. They had grown older now, and not to mention, more successful and renowned. Broderick looked at her with a sense of affection. She looked back at him with some unidentified emotion. Her jaw was clenched.

She couldn't look at him the way she did with Vikram years ago, with genuine love. No one knew about her history, not even her team. And at this point, she wonders why she married him, had it been for shock or sympathy? She wasn't sure, but she was confident that he was capable enough to give her a beautiful marriage, something that _he _wouldn't even have been capable of doing. Maybe that was the reason she married him.

Or maybe, the most likely reason, she had heard that Vikram had married someone over the past few years. And she would've wanted to show him that she had moved on as he had. She brushed off the thought and settled with the third reason. Even that sounded like a lie to her.

-x-

Vikram opened his safe and retrieved a pile of envelopes and folders, tied together by a silk twine. He handed it to her and she stood up.

"Before I go," she said, "I'd like to ask again, why?"

Vikram clenched his jaw. He knew that this would come one way or another.

"Why what?" Vikram's inner self scolded him. He was cowering. Giving her these kind of answers to waste her time.

Sadly for him, she wasn't going to have any of it.

"Don't play dumb," Cora snapped at him.

-x-

_Ten years ago_

Cora sat in a cushioned chair and sipped her tea. The current Branch Leader looked at her with apprehensive eyes. Cora, undeniably, was now the second-in-line to the Janus power. And no one will deny that she was very powerful.

"I assume you're here to try and convince me to step down," the elderly woman said, "I'm not having any of it."

"Oh, I've learnt that you wouldn't from our past meetings," Cora crooned. "But I have a birthday gift for you as today is your, um, 70th birthday?"

"Yes."

Cora produced a small package and handed it to her. The woman unraveled the package and inside was a fat envelope. She opened the envelope and saw her dossier inside of it. Along with several compromising pictures that will prove fatal to her position as Branch Leader.

"Don't worry, that's yours," Cora stated flatly, "I have more of them in, well, I wouldn't really say right?"

"What do you want?" the woman hissed.

"Abdicate your position," Cora's tone turned grave.

"No," the elderly woman said, confident that Cora was bluffing, she couldn't really know if these were true.

"No?" Cora repeated.

"No."

"Very well," Cora said her face blank, "I think we're done here."

She walked out of the woman's mansion with confident strides.

_Patience is a virtue, Cora._

The elderly woman awoke the next day to the sound of high-profile Janus agents banging on her door.

"What brings you here, gentlemen?" the elderly woman asks.

They take a hold of her hands and cuff her.

"Wh-What is this?" she asked indignantly.

"You'll find out soon enough."

-x-

"I-I needed leverage to go up the ladder of hierarchy in the Branch," Vikram started impassively. "I thought, judging from your character then, that you would be a casualty."

Cora nodded and strode out of his office. A lone tear made its way down her cheek. She had loved him. And he would just abandon her like that. He was truly despicable. She couldn't really deny the air of impassiveness, and maybe a hint of remorse that surrounded him.

As she strode out of his abode, she barely caught the soft whisper of apology of one Vikram Kabra.

"I'm sorry, Cora."

-x-

_Ten years ago_

With the current Janus Leader down, she could now successfully take over the position. As she sat down on her new office, a satin envelope lay in front of her.

She unfurled the ribbon that held it together. She read the invitation that stated her invitation to the Cahill 'reunions' that Grace Cahill always hosted in an attempt to patch them together. She pitied the woman. Her futile attempts always ended in vain.

On the day of the reunion, she had donned on a white fedora and a simple white dress that extended until just the end of her thighs. She wore a pair of two-inch white stilettos to the reunion that day. She held her son firmly in her hand. Her husband walked beside her.

When she arrived, the other Cahill Branch Leaders were already there. She had sat on a white sofa that sat in the middle of the room. Grace's lawyer, Mr. McIntyre appeared and escorted the Leaders to the backyard. They had tables and chairs set up for them. The table had a white tablecloth on it and the chairs were cushioned. Grace sat at the head of the table.

"Welcome, my dears," Grace greeted them with a cheerfulness she couldn't quite place.

They took seats and when they had settled down, Grace stood up and had asked her to stand up.

"Let us welcome the newest replacement to the Head of the Janus," Grace droned on happily. The Leaders looked at her with impassive faces but one, she didn't miss the Lucian Leader's bewildered face.

"Cora Wizard," said Grace. Vikram looked at her with a confused face; apparently, he didn't receive news that she had married.

She couldn't blame him, the last time they had met, she was still Cora Avignon. He looked at her ring finger and caught glimpse of her platinum band. An ostentatious-looking red diamond sat on the middle of the band.

Vikram looked at her with an expressionless face. But she could see a flurry of emotions playing out in his eyes. Most of which she couldn't place. She really didn't miss the air of uneasiness that had enveloped the two of them.

_The hatchling had grown into an eagle._

Disclaimer: I don't own the 39 Clues or anything associated with it.

Hey guys! This is my first time writing a Cora/Vikram fic so please, go easy on me. And reviews are much appreciated. Oh and feel free to point out my mistakes.


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